After the Spring semester ended, my hours were slashed dramatically. This came as a bit of a surprise, but in the library market (perhaps all markets?) it’s not uncommon. Even still, I panicked a little bit. I have a dog, and my own place, and the thought that after seven years of education I would be unable to support my relatively modest needs was an awful thought to contemplate.

I felt that I was going to have to apply for every permanent position I saw and sign up for every short-term job I could find. I was sure that August would find me eating rice every other night and wearing my keyboard out applying for more jobs. The universe, perhaps because it heard the little voice that said maybe some more knitting time would be nice, decided that my vision would not come to pass. It decided that instead, I would find myself working full-time, albeit at four different organizations. Knitting time, ha.

It amazes me that the stars aligned in this way. At first, I was resolved to spend every spare moment searching for a permanent position, any position, even if I had to squint and hold the description sideways, with my thumbs over certain lines, to make it look good. I would be overwhelmed, I would be miserable, but by gad, I would get those applications out.

And then a friend asked me why.

The best answer I had for them was because. Because that was what I had been doing for so long. Because I couldn’t think of a faster way out of my predicament. I was not so far gone that I had to be told these were not particularly good reasons to be applying for jobs.

So I’m going to say enough. Enough rushing to the future. I’m going to focus on my present, and learn everything I can at each job. When I arrive in the new year, my experiences will better qualify me to do what I want in my career, and to compete for jobs that look good without squinting and looking at them sideways.